Studying Political Violence Through Counter Cases: Why Has There Been So Little Political Violence in Post-War Finland?

This paper claims that from the theoretical point of view, the absence of political violence is just as interesting as the presence thereof. The ultimate test of any theory in terms of its explanatory power is whether it manages to explain the difference between positive and negative cases. To demonstrate this, the case of Finland is discussed. Finland is by any measure among those European countries which have experienced least political violence in the post-war period. The paper brings together research on Finnish politics, society and radical movements on the one hand, and theories of political violence on the other hand, thereby evaluating how well the existing theories of political violence and terrorism manage to account for the lack of political violence in Finland. Based on this analysis, the paper drafts outlines for new research designs and agendas to further develop theories of (resilience to) political violence in western countries.